Beat the Heat with Cool August Programs

Bird Banding Demonstration

All summer, Naturalist Tait Johansson and Summer Field Biologist Kim Jordan, together with a team of volunteers, have been operating our MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity & Survivorship) Station in our Hunt-Parker Sanctuary.  Our Bird Banding Demonstration at Bylane Farm is a great opportunity to see what they do, without trekking into the sanctuary before daybreak! Learn more about MAPS and Bedford Audubon’s role as Tait and a team of volunteers band birds, explaining every step along the way. This is a family-friendly event, but children must be accompanied by an adult.

Sunday, August 3, 8:00am-10:00am, Bylane Farm Cost: Free, but donations welcomed to support our research. Level of difficulty: Easy. Please email Susan to register.

For more information about our MAPS Station and to support our research, click the button below:

First Wednesday’s Walk

On our monthly visit to the Deans Bridge area in Somers, Naturalist Tait Johansson will guide us in an exploration of water, wetland, grassland, and woodland habitat to search for Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron, Yellow Warbler, possibly Solitary Sandpiper, and others.

Wednesday, August 6, 7:30am-9:30am, Deans Bridge Road, Somers Cost: Free. Level of difficulty: Moderate (due to a steep incline in one area). Please email Susan to register.

Opening Reception, Members’ Photo Exhibition in Mount Kisco

Back by popular demand! Our Members’ Photo Exhibit is hitting the road for a one-month run at the Mount Kisco Library. We hope you will join us at a reception to celebrate the exhibit’s “encore” opening. Enjoy refreshments and a keynote presentation by Bedford Audubon Board President John Hannan. John will expand on the exhibit’s theme, From Near and Far: Celebrating Birds Across the Americas, and discuss critical issues affecting bird migration across North, Central and South America. Spanish language translation and bilingual materials will be provided.

Saturday, August 9th, 1:30pm-3:30pm, Mount Kisco Public Library Community Room Cost: Free. Please email Susan to register.

Field Trip to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

If you can’t make our Shorebirds Workshop and Field Trip on July 30, we are offering a second chance to take a trip birding with Naturalist Tait Johansson to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. This trip is timed to coincide with high tide when the marshes of the open bay are submerged, but the East Pond mudflats are not tidal, providing foraging and/or resting areas while the waters are high outside. Wear rubber boots, or old sneakers and a change of footwear for later, as we’re expecting mud possibly up to above the ankles while we search for Glossy Ibis, Great Blue and Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Osprey, egrets, and possibly flocks of hundreds of sandpipers and plovers of many species.

Sunday, August 10, 8:00am-1:00pm. Cost: Free. Level of difficulty: Easy-moderate. Please email Susan to register.

Habitat Renewal Volunteer Day

Board Member and Naturalist Steve Ricker leads these workshop sessions in which he will teach you how to identify and remove invasive plants and why this practice is so vital to the ecosystem. In some sessions, we will be replanting native plants. The sessions are conducted entirely outside on our sanctuary and grounds, as well as in the Leon Levy Native Habitat Garden at Bedford Audubon. This is a great way to get some exercise, fresh air, and support our communities’ native plants and habitats.

Tools and gloves are provided, but you can bring your own. Loppers and hand pruners are the most used types. Plants with thorns as well as poison ivy will be present.

Saturday, August 16, 9:00am-10:30am. Cost: Free. Level of difficulty: Easy-moderate. Please email Susan to register.

Third Thursday’s Bird Walk

If you missed seeing warblers during spring migration, join us in search of them before they head out, as many warblers are already migrating by mid-August. Join Naturalist Tait Johansson at our popular Third Thursday’s Bird Walk in Katonah to look for these small birds and other songbird migrants while you have the chance. This is an easy walk, great for beginners and experienced birders alike.

Thursday, August 21, 7:30am-9:30am.  Cost: Free. Level of difficulty: Easy. Please email Susan to register.

HawkWatch is Coming… 

Each autumn from late August to late November, Bedford Audubon staff and volunteers run our Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch located in Bedford Corners, New York. Going into our 44th year of formal raptor identification during the fall migration period, our data is combined with other Hawkwatch sites to create population and migration analyses that help us better protect raptors and their habitat, and contributes to a hemispheric raptor conservation effort – and you can be part of it!

Starting Monday, August 25, HawkWatch takes place daily through mid-November from 9:00am-5:00pm (weather permitting) at the Arthur Butler Sanctuary, 265 Chestnut Ridge Road, Mount Kisco. The viewing platform is open to the public so registration is not necessary. Look for specific HawkWatch programs beginning in September.

CLICK HERE for more information about our HawkWatch.